KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The confirmation arrived by email in late June. The subject was Whit Merrifield, the Royals’ surprising utility star. Dave Holtzman, an associate producer for Fox Sports Kansas City, had spent a few hours searching for a new way to explain Merrifield’s unicorn nature to the Royals’ local television audience. Now, he had his answer — and it was a little bit shocking.

Holtzman wears many hats for Fox Sports Kansas City, the local television rights-holder for the Royals. He conducts research, compiles stats and prepares graphics for the nightly broadcasts. A former club official in the communications department, he’s also become an unofficial apostle for the Church of Whit, doling out factoids and nightly Merrifield statistics to his thousands of followers on Twitter.

His first breakthrough came last summer, when he discovered that Merrifield, once a lightly regarded minor-league prospect, was one of just seven players in major-league...